Deacon John photographed by Willow Haley
The New Orleans Jazz Museum and Jazz Foundation of America present a performance featuring Deacon John on Wednesday, October 26th at 2:00 PM CDT
This program takes place inside our third-floor Performance Center, listening room. Admission is free and open to the public, seating is limited and offered first come, first serve. Learn more about our program admission policy.
Enjoy jazz music from home with the New Orleans Jazz Museum! Join the Jazz Museum online for our daily Live-Stream Concert Series, in which dynamic jazz musicians perform live from the Jazz Museum! Tune in at 2 pm on facebook.com/nolajazzmuseum/live to watch for free.
Deacon John
In a career that spans more than fifty years, Deacon John Moore has endured as one of New Orleans' most talented and adaptive performers. "If New Orleans has such a thing as a musical chameleon, it is certainly Deacon John," says music writer Jeff Hannusch. A warhorse and model showman, he's entertained generations of New Orleanians, playing classic rhythm and blues, rock 'n' roll, blues, jazz, and gospel. Blessed with a great voice that was trained in the church, he began singing with his first R&B band in the seventh grade. Once he began playing the guitar, learning to play by ear from the records and books he bought, he started playing professionally in 1957 while still in high school and has never looked back. In the 1960s, Deacon, as a guitarist, began to play on recording sessions with Allen Toussaint, Dave Bartholomew, Harold Battiste, Wardell Quezergue, and Eddie Bo. He became a fixture on all of the top records at Cosimo Matassa's studio in the late '50s and early '60s, playing on many classic hits—Ernie K-Doe's "Mother-in-Law," "Tain’t It the Truth" and "A Certain Girl"; Benny Spellman's "Lipstick Traces" and "Fortune Teller"; Lee Dorsey's "Working in the Coal Mine," "Ride Your Pony" and "Holy Cow"; Aaron Neville's "Tell It Like It Is," and Professor Longhair's "Big Chief," among others.
Deacon has graced the covers of many local and national newspapers and magazines. He has appeared in movies, live musical theater, and has been featured in national TV commercials, including Lincoln Cars, Southern Comfort Whiskey, Snickers Candy, Blue Cross health insurance, Capital One Bank ("What's in your wallet?"), People's Health Insurance, and Airbnb. Deacon has also been in many WYES-TV documentaries on New Orleans history and culture, most recently Growing Up in New Orleans and Audubon Park Memories; he is also in Shake the Devil Off, the 2007 documentary about Father Jerome LeDoux, and the 2013 horror film, The Last Exorcism Part II. Deacon played "Danny Nelson" in the first season of HBO's acclaimed Treme. He is currently featured in the New Orleans media campaign, "Follow Your NOLA"; previously he was in local ad campaigns for tobacco-free living, "Let's Be Totally Clear"; for the United Teachers of New Orleans (UTNO); and for the New Orleans Musicians Clinic. Deacon is the star of the critically acclaimed documentary movie, Going Back to New Orleans: The Deacon John Film, and live concert DVD and CD, Deacon John's Jump Blues.
Deacon John (vocals/ guitar), Tommy Robinson (drums), Luther Gray (conga drums/percussion), Kurt Brunus (piano/organ/keyboard), Charles D.S. Moore (electric bass), Kathleen A. Moore (vocals), John E. Moore (lead guitar/vocals), Michael Pierce (tenor sax/alto sax), Mario Tio (rhythm guitar), Thomas Fitzpatrick (tenor sax/alto sax), Darryl Jacob (trombone), and Eric Ensminger (trumpet)
Click here to learn more about Deacon John!